Friday, September 19, 2014

There is an undercurrent
in American society that suggests that the economy just isn't the same now
as it was before the Great Recession took jobs, homes and wealth away
from millions of American families. A recent study by Cliff Zukin, Carl Van Horn and
Allison Kopicki at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workplace Development gives
us a sense of just how pessimistic Americans are five years after the so-called
end of the latest and greatest recession.

The authors begin by
noting that, despite the drop in the headline unemployment rate from ten
percent to just above six percent, in July 2014, there were still 9.7 million
unemployed Americans. In fact, if we look at the total number of American
workers that are unemployed, marginally attached and employed part-time for
economic reasons, this is what the real, street-level
unemployment rate looks like:

In addition, long-term
unemployment rates are still above pre-recession levels in over 40 states.
The economy is not creating enough jobs to employ all of the new workers
who are entering the work force and we need to see the economy create
another seven million jobs to retire to the full employment level seen at the
beginning of the new millennium, a task that is projected to take until 2019 to
achieve.

In the economic world,
perception is everything. If Main Street has the perception that the
economy is bad or that it will get worse, the pessimistic mindset tends to
become reality. A majority and growing number of Americans feel that the
Great Recession left the economy in a permanently altered state with
irreversible negative shifts in the economy as shown on this graph:

The percentage of
Americans who perceive that the economy has undergone permanent negative
changes since the Great Recession has risen from 49 percent in November 2009 to
71 percent in August 2014 while the percentage of Americans who feel that the
economy has undergone temporary changes has fallen from 46 percent in November
2009 to 29 percent in August 2014. A full 36 percent of Americans feel
that the economy will not fully recover from the Great Recession, 24 percent
feel that it will take six to ten years to recover and an additional 30 percent
feel that it will take three to five years to recover to pre-Great Recession
levels. This is particularly interesting given that according to
historical patterns, we are due for another recession in the next one to two
years.

Here is a list of
economic fundamentals and how they are perceived by Americans today:

In July 1999, 56 percent
of Americans felt that overall career and job opportunities would be better for
the next generation than for their generation; by August 2014, this had
plummeted to only 16 percent.

Here is a bar graph
showing the percentage of Americans who feel that the current economy is worse,
the same or better than it was last year and the percentage of Americans who
feel that the economy next year will be worse, the same or better than it is
now:

Notice how only
one-quarter of Americans feel that the economy will improve over the coming
year compared to nearly half that feel that it will be the same as it is now.

Additional surveys show
the following about how American workers describe themselves:

14 percent are happy at
work

18 percent are well paid

32 percent are better
than workers in other countries

33 percent are highly
skilled

45 percent take pride in
the work that they do

68 percent are highly
stressed

70 percent are not secure
in their jobs

Taken as a whole,
American workers are a stressed, insecure, underpaid, unhappy lot with very
little hope that things will improve in the future. One has to wonder
what it will take to meaningfully improve the post-Great Recession outlook for
America's workforce. In many ways, until the negative mindset of the
majority of American workers changes, there is little hope that the economy
will achieve its pre-Great Recession performance levels. After all, in the economy, perception really is reality.

MSM has basically become propaganda. What is the number if you add to the 12.5%, the people fully employed but make under 25K a year what number do you get then?(I did a really quick google and the numbers were not right in my face) My guess is though the number will be quite large and if you took that % of people and minus away living expenses that must be paid there is little spending cash left over, which explains why in a consumer driven economy the US has stalled. No matter how much the FED prints money it’s not making it to whatever that % of people who have no money to consume and drive the economy.

'One has to wonder what it will take to meaningfully improve the post-Great Recession outlook for America's workforce.'

It's very simple actually. Restore the 'rule of law'. Prosecute the money changers and the crony capitalistic politicians, past and present. Spare no one - including President's. Before this can be done however there must be a wholesale change of those currently occupying the seats of power - in all three branches of government. The money changers must be eliminated as a functional entity and their control over the MSM and governments rendered impotent. Responsible fiscal (balanced budgets) and monetary policies (cease fractional reserve lending) must be restored. When the people see that the fruits of their labour is rewarded and garnered by them and not stolen by the elite few. When they see that the Constitution is being adhered to as intended and not co-opted for the convenience of the money changers (and the 1%) at the expense of the majority then you will have a meaningful, positive and lasting improvement in outlook. Not 1 second before.

The long-term implications of poor job creation are massive. The biggest may be that a huge number of people are dropping from the work force. Often these people have little in the way of savings, this means that the burden of caring for them will be transferred to society. If to many people shift into this category we will slowly wear down through attrition.

Finding a fair way to share and balance the work load that goes on every day may be one of the most important problems facing our modern world. Not discovering a solution to this dilemma bodes poorly for our consumer driven economy and adds to the toxic problem of inequality. More on the implications of unemployment in the article below.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.